Seeking greater understanding of the Big Picture

[Energize]

I wanted to briefly share a concept I have been pondering. I (and my sons) play video games. These days, the graphics are really excellent and realistic, and the stories and characters have quite a bit of depth. Virtual reality!

I can't help but compare these games to the concept of the Big Picture...loosely anyway.

While I play a game, I am immersed in the world and the experiences of the character I am playing. But when it is time to end the gaming session, I easily withdraw from the experience, and return to my regular reality. This strikes me as somewhat similar to the concept of a soul living lives in this dimension. Ending incarnation is like ending a gaming session. All in a much much more profound and deeper way of course, but I suspect there may be some conceptual similarities.

When I am playing a really good game, I will often create several different characters to explore their strengths and weaknesses. Again - like multiple lives lived within a single world by the same player/soul. Add to the mix, the pursuit of MMOG's (massively multiplayer online games), where thousands of players play their characters in a shared world...now the analogy gets even stronger. Talking with each other, helping each other, stealing from each other, and fighting each other. Welcome to EARTH! We are truely brave badasses!!

Finally, in regards to this (somewhat confusing) concept of 'probable selves'...often I will save my game at a particular crossroads, and try out different actions to see what happens, reloading the save each time. I've even taken it to extremes within the game system, like jumping my character off a cliff, just to see what's down there, heh heh! Ahhh...no consequences!

I'm not in any way confusing our reality with fantasy game worlds of course, but it is very interesting to see the vague similarities between the two. A couple of the many key differences (as I understand it) is that the 'real' world is for much higher stakes, and the 'character' being played is conscious in its own right.

Could it be that the popularity of games has its root in peoples' unconscious identification with the process? Nah! It's just fun!

[ButterflyWoman]

While I play a game, I am immersed in the world and the experiences of the character I am playing. But when it is time to end the gaming session, I easily withdraw from the experience, and return to my regular reality. This strikes me as somewhat similar to the concept of a soul living lives in this dimension. Ending incarnation is like ending a gaming session. All in a much much more profound and deeper way of course, but I suspect there may be some conceptual similarities.

Yep. I've made that comparison, myself. It's a pretty good metaphor, I think.

often I will save my game at a particular crossroads, and try out different actions to see what happens, reloading the save each time. I've even taken it to extremes within the game system, like jumping my character off a cliff, just to see what's down there, heh heh! Ahhh...no consequences!

Yes. Exactly like that.

Could it be that the popularity of games has its root in peoples' unconscious identification with the process? Nah! It's just fun!

Human minds are by their nature easily drawn into the drama and conflict and comedy of stories. Books, plays, films, tv shows, video games... reality...